The Gamer 
All work and no play makes Mac a dull boy.
The Basics.
The Mac Pro ($2,799 and up, www.apple.com) is the best bet for a serious gaming Mac—its tower configuration and PCI Express expansion plots make it the most versatile, and its two Xeon chips give it plenty of processing power too. Modern “hardcore” games (twitchy first-person shooters, eye-candy-filled strategy games, massively multiplayer online worlds, and so on) require a speedy processor and the best graphics card you can get. We would configure our gaming Mac Pro with two 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon CPUs and the standard 2GB of RAM and single 320GB hard drive, and then we’d upgrade to an Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT graphics card with 512MB of video RAM (VRAM) and the AirPort Extreme 802.11n wireless card, for a grand total of $2,999.
If that’s too rich, the 24-inch iMac can be had with the same GeForce 8800 GT graphics card and 2GB of memory, plus a 500GB hard drive, built-in monitor, and AirPort wireless for just $2,199. The only catch is that an iMac’s graphics can’t easily be upgraded later on, while a Mac Pro’s can. The 24-inch iMac is also a better value than the 15-inch 2.5GHz MacBook Pro ($2,499), which has a game-worthy Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB of VRAM, but only 15 inches of screen real estate.
As great as the Mac Pro is, it doesn’t come with a display. Apple’s Cinema Displays are an attractive option, if a bit spendy, but their response time is 14 milliseconds. While that’s plenty fast enough for most computing tasks and entertainment, hardcore gamers might look for a snappier-responding LCD, like the 24-inch Samsung SyncMaster 245t (www.samsung.com), which has a 6ms response time and costs $799, although we found it online for $700. (The 23-inch Apple Cinema Display is $899, so the Samsung will save you two bills that you can spend on more games.)
A sturdy gaming headset is essential. Good sound fidelity will add to the immersive gaming experience, plus you need a microphone for taunting opponents and coordinating with teammates. We like the comfortable Logitech Precision Gaming Headset ($29.99, www.logitech.com) for its cord’s volume and mute controls and the noise-canceling microphone designed to keep game sounds from bleeding into our conversations.
We’ll stick with the Mac Pro’s packed-in Apple Keyboard for now, but the Mighty Mouse doesn’t live up to its name for anything beyond casual gaming. Instead, try the Razer DeathAdder Mac Edition ($59.99, www .razerzone.com). If you like sports or driving games, pick up a Logitech Dual Action Gamepad ($19.99, www.logitech.com)—heck, pick up two in case you “accidentally” throw yours against a wall someday.
Then it’s time to get your game on. On the Mac side, try World of WarCraft, The Sims 2, Heroes of Might and Magic V, Need for Speed: Carbon, Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, Second Life, Madden NFL 09, and more, without even dipping your toes into the deep end of Windows gaming (see “Extras,” below).
Extras.
Maybe you noticed that when we configured our Mac Pro, we didn’t upgrade the single lonely hard drive, or the standard 2GB of RAM. Let’s do that now, but let’s save tons of cash by buying the RAM and hard drives separately and installing them ourselves. For RAM, check out Crucial’s helpful Memory Advisor Tool at www.crucial .com. We found a 4GB pair of fully buffered DIMMs for $229.99—Apple charges $500 if you buy the same 4GB with your Mac Pro. And since we bought our Mac Pro with 2GB installed already, that’s a total of 6GB after this upgrade. Not bad. Other World Computing (www.macsales.com) has good deals on hard drives; at press time, 1TB Hitachi 7K100 7,200-rpm SATA drives were $199.99 each. Grab one for each of your Mac Pro’s four hard-drive bays; that should hold you a while.
Take your gaming to the next level with a clean copy of Windows XP Home Edition ($189.99 on www.amazon.com) to play Windows games over Boot Camp. Or try Codeweaver’s CrossOver Games ($39.95, www.codeweavers.com) if the games you want to play are on its supported titles list. CrossOver Games lets you play Windows software on your Mac without owning Windows at all—see the full review on p83. If you do go with the Windows/Boot Camp option, make sure to get some antivirus software—Norton AntiVirus Dual Protection ($69.99, shop.symantecstore .com) will watch over the Mac and Windows partitions of your hard drive at once. Once you’re ready for some Windows games, check out Gears of War, Diablo 3, Quake IV, Half-Life 2, and Call of Duty 4.
If Money Is No Object.
Program the Belkin n52te to control all your favorite games.
So, you’re starting to resemble the South Park kids in the “Make Love, Not WarCraft” episode? Time to get crazy with the 1337 gear. Baby yourself with the booming bass and comfy fit of the Razer Piranha headset ($79.99, www.razerzone.com). If you’re a speed fiend, ditch the analog sticks on your trusty gamepad for a real driving experience. Logitech’s MOMO Racing Force Feedback Wheel ($99.99. www.logitech.com) features gas and brake pedals, an 11-inch rubber steering wheel with programmable buttons, and lets you shift gears with paddle shifters or a manual knob.
The Logitech MOMO Racing Force Feedback Racing Wheel also comes with gas and brake pedals for under your chair.
If you prefer RPGs, first-person shooters, and real-time strategy games, the Belkin n52te Game Controller ($69.99, www .belkin.com) has 15 programmable keys and a thumbpad, plus four shift states, for a total of 105 actions at your fingertips when every second counts. Logitech’s G15 Gaming Keyboard ($99.99) is considered the best of the best. If you run into any USB gaming peripherals that don’t come with Mac drivers, pick up a multipurpose device driver called USB Overdrive ($20, www.usboverdrive .com). Finally, grab a case of super-caffeinated Bawls G33K B33R ($32.99 for 24 bottles, www.thinkgeek.com) to stay awake and twitchy during all-night fragging sessions.
benet
November 10, 2009 at 7:01pm
Every little chat Salon 1000 ah!replica watchYou are my best's buddy sqda
pegasusbsb27
October 12, 2008 at 5:58pm
Yeah...They are expensive in Brazil (Don't ask me why but Apple products here are more expensive than in neighbour Argentina, for exemple!), but never mind...this year was my Apple year! I bought my first iMac 20'' 2,4 GHz and my first iPod 160Gb. Thank God the dolar started to up after my shops!!!
cdnair
September 27, 2008 at 5:16pm
I've noticed that this article seems to be pimping out the Western Digital hard drives quite a bit. I just wanted to make it clear to anyone in the market for an external HD, that, though the value may be there, these are absolutely horrendous machines. If all you're using it for is to plug into a desktop computer and leave it there, you may be alright- if you don't bump the desk... walk around the desk too heavily... blow on it too hard...
I'm a film student and have heard endless horror stories that almost always route back to the failure of their MyBook. Footage for final short film projects, important interviews, footy for demo reels; gone. And this is with proper plug/unplug (power downs, disconnecting from the computer) and transport ever so delicately in the original packaging.
I can strongly recommend LaCie drives myself. Yes, you may pay a bit more, but you do get what you pay for, and sometimes can find some great deals on certain models. Bought one a year ago and have been known to cram it, cables and all, into the bottom of my backpack and go. Needless to say it's got a few surface scratches, but it's given me no problems whatsoever.
nightshrill
September 27, 2008 at 1:54pm
Mr. Reeee, I think you are a tad confused about the overall point of my and others comments. I, at least, was not arguing against the overall price of a mac (although I feel as though I could make an argument against it, as I can build a custom pc for about 800 dollars that compares equally or better to an iMac). The point is that the editors of MacLife for whatever reason put a computer that is more than 1,000 dollars in category recommended for "Starving Students", which is absurd in its own way. As Brendan had also mentioned, pc magazines do this all the time to, if you're a starving student the only thing I'd recommend aside from possibly a real "budget" pc is go build one yourself on the cheap. Yes it'll be underpowered (for example, an intel pentium dual-core processor, not a core2duo) but it'll serve the average user well.
Mr. Reeee
September 27, 2008 at 8:57am
Why complain about the cost of a new Mac, when you can buy a used machine?
You can get a 1 or 2 generation old Mac for 1/2 (or less) the cost of a new machine. If it needs more RAM, that can be bought and installed easily.Macs hold their value well and remain useful years longer than your typical generic Dell or HP DOSBox running Windows.
I generally sell my Macs on craigslist when they're 1 1/2 to 2 years old.
I'm happy, because I've paid for half my new Mac.
The person who buys it is happy, because they get a good, well cared for machine for half price.
It's a win-win!
gmsquires
September 26, 2008 at 3:05pm
Yes depending on what "your" budget is will determine what you can afford and what kind of pc you will be able to get. If you are stuck for something under $500 then you may be rather limited and have to settle for a rather udner powered no name brand unless you can find a refurb or used machine. As to the Macmini not having a fan, it does have a fan and it has a temp sensor to activate the fan only when needed. I have a mini and have been very happy with it. It is generally over the $500 amount unless you can get a refurb and if you add memory it boosts the price. A bare bones system adding in Ubuntu linux may be an option depending on if the video card will work with it.
njdevilsfan
September 26, 2008 at 1:19pm
i agree completely hopefully apples new products or updates on oct 14 send the price back a few hundred dollars
Brendan Bartholomew
September 26, 2008 at 12:47pm
Nightshrill, I feel you dude. For what it's worth, the Windows PC-oriented magazines and sites are just as guilty when it comes to having some sort of gross disconnect between what they imagine we can afford and what we can actually afford. I could maybe afford a bit more if I had a dime for every time I've paged through some PC publication whose cover story was something to the effect of "We Build up a Blazing Budget Bare-Bones Kit that won't Break the Bank!" or "How Low is the Low End? We Look at Eight Entry-Level Laptops that Won't Loot Your Life's Savings!" or maybe "Fiscally Frugal Frag-Fests with Five Affordable Form Factors to Prevent your Piggy Bank from being Pwned!" If I'm foolhardy enough to delve into these articles in search of any kind of bottom line, I will inevitably find myself in a state of shock when confronted with the jaw-dropping price of what they're calling a "budget" system. I seem to recall more than one of these publications recently pitting "affordable" mini-towers from Dell, HP, Lenovo, and all the usual companies against each other in order to determine whether any of them were really adequate for meeting a computing dilettante's basic needs. Affordable to them meant computers that cost at least $650, with most of them retailing for around $850 or more. At that just-under-a-thousand-dollars (!) price point, they tend to conclude, you can, in fact, purchase a system for your grandmother that will be up to the task of meeting her basic e-mailing and Web browsing needs. At which point I want to reach into the page or through the Internet so I can grab the editors by their shoulders, shake them vigorously, and shout in their faces, "HELLLOOOO, Earth calling! Down here in the real world, a budget PC is that loss leader in the Office Depot ad that's $299 after the alleged rebate! It's that refurbished, de-branded HP mini-tower that Geeks.com is selling for under $200 with no OS but a dual core processor and plenty of expansion slots! That's what a cheap PC looks like out here in the real world, and if it's gonna cost $850, it had better be equipped to perform sexual favors for its owner, or it'd better be a fully loaded Mac Mini!" Both would be good, but the Mini has no internal fan, and you wouldn't want it to overheat, you know? But.... I digress...
nightshrill
September 26, 2008 at 5:15am
I know that this is clearly a mac publication/website, however I think it is worthwhile to point out as a "starving student" who happens to work + go to school full-time that blowing 1,099 dollars on a computer is not "budget" what-so-ever, especially compared to Asus' epc (or however they spell it), or even your standard run-of-the-mill dell/hp/toshiba, sure you don't get as nice hardware with any of those options but it is by fear cheaper than 1,099 dollars. I think to call this the "starving student" option is absurd. If you're a starving student get a cheap laptop and slap linux on it.
